Party
nominations for the Dáil election have now closed and we can
see that the gains made by women candidates at the last two elections
have now stalled. Most parties have fewer women candidates than in 1997
and a similar number to those fielded in 1992. As in past elections
Labour and the Progressive Democrats have the highest proportion of
women among the main parties (11 out of 46 and 6 out 20, respectively),
followed by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil (15 out of 85 and 13 out
of 106). Table 1 below gives a gender breakdown of
each party's candidates for this election, while Table
2 shows the figures for the previous two elections.

Twenty female incumbent TDs are seeking re-election while only one is
retiring at this election, Fine Gael's Monica Barnes. Mrs Barnes is
one of seven Fine Gael deputies standing down, and in three of these
seven constituencies the party has nominated a woman: Dun Laoghaire
(Senator Helen Keogh), Laois-Offaly (Olwyn Enright, daughter of retiring
deputy Thomas Enright), and Wexford (MEP Avril Doyle). Fianna
Fáil has nominated a woman in only one of its nine newly-vacant seats
(Maire Hoctor in Tipperary North). Out of all 42 constituencies there
are ten with no women party candidates, and 22 with no women candidates
from the two major parties, compared with 17 at the last election.

In
addition to the incumbents there are five non-incumbent women running
for Fianna Fáil, six for Labour, and ten for Fine Gael. However
these include seven women senators and seven former women TDs hoping
to return to the Dáil at this election (four from Labour, two
from Fine Gael and one Fianna Fáil candidate). Among the independents
and small parties currently unrepresented in the Dáil there are
21 women candidates out of 134. Marian Harkin in Sligo-Leitrim and Mildred
Fox, seeking a second term in Wicklow, are strong independent contenders.

Information on the
current election comes from the Irish Times, 6 May 2002. Information
on previous elections comes from Nealon's Guide to the 27th Dail and
Seanad (1993) and Nealon's Guide to the 28th Dail and Seanad (1998),
both edited by Ted Nealon; Howe Ireland Voted 1997, edited by Michael
Marsh and Paul Mitchell (1999); and Contesting Politics, by Yvonne
Galligan, Eilís Ward and Rick Wilford (1999). Return
to top.